Mark Your Ballot – Yes on Measure A

It’s election day again, and for some of us – fare too few of us – voting in local elections is a priority. For those who always want to vote, but have not had the time to do their homework – i.e. research the candidates and the propositions, look up the records, attend the forums ( or watch them online) I usually offer mine.

Vote Yes on Measure A – It’s a pretty simple deal, just a city tax on new cannabis businesses. In addition to the state and county tax, some have argued that it will raise the price prohibitively, but I think not. We just about always approve taxing ourselves, and this should be no exception.

This city council race, I am not endorsing any candidates.

The simple fact is that I do not have any other information that you don’t already have. In past elections, I have had the opportunity to sit down with candidates and hear them speak about why they were running for council and what their focus was. That did not happen this time.

I asked all four candidates to contact me in regard to an interview, no one did. I sent out another email, did some personal follow ups – again, no one was available. Several simply did not respond at all.

This puts me, as a publisher, in the difficult position of having ads for candidates, but no endorsements, so the ads then seem to be endorsements. Publications have to have advertising revenue, but when ads speak louder than content, it’s a lack of balance. It’s not for lack of intention or effort.

So, in the past I have been able to offer a fresh perspective or a personal insight. This election, I simply can’t.

I did get a response from Albert Vera, and he was not able to commit to the time. He apologized, and offered that he would speak with me as soon as he was available. There was also a small problem in regard to Vera’s advertising, which he took care of promptly and personally, and I think that speaks very highly of him.

While all the candidates have had a big presence on Facebook, the large section of Culver City that is not on Facebook did not see any of that. All the candidates did interviews with other venues, and perhaps you saw those.

So, if this shows a disdain by those running for council towards independent journalism, that’s not good. If this shows that it’s only the old boy network that matters, that’s not good. For whatever reason CulverCityCrossroads.com’s request for interviews was ignored by council candidates.

I do want to encourage you to vote today. Not participating is not the solution.

CulverCityCrossroads.com is regularly under fire for being too liberal, and too conservative. Journalism is not about playing one side of the game, journalism is about reflecting truth with facts. But without some unique perspective, there is nothing to reflect.

Choose any two candidates that you have information on; none of them will do great harm, and some of them may do great good.

C’mon…click!

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